Tag Archives: entertainment

Can you guess what I got up to this weekend? Does the title of this post kind of give it away? Yes, I had one of the most laughter-filled days ever on Saturday when I met up with my friends for a day filled with sausages, cider, glitz and bingo – let me tell you all about it..!

Only a couple of weeks ago my friend invited me to a Sausage Festival – she’d seen it advertised on one of those deal-sharing websites and the tickets were half-price. Given that our group of friend are known for our love of sausages, we quickly booked up for the event and started the ‘countdown to sausages’. I was worried I’d be a little disappointed, after I’d hyped it up so much in my mind, but I’m happy to say that the sausage festival was great. There were sausage tastings from local producers scattered around the town, and after travelling around the sausage trail 3 times, (with a couple of rest breaks for cider), I worked out that I’d eaten around 30 inches of sausage! That surely must be the best way to spend a Saturday, yes?

Or perhaps the best way to spend a Saturday is at the bingo? Well, that’s what I decided after taking my pals to the Gala bingo hall in the nearby town for a girl’s night out. I was expecting a cheesy and tacky night out, and although it was both of these things, it was also so much more! Bingo halls are loads more glitzy nowadays, whilst retaining their retro features like these cute booths and garish playing boards, and while chatting to the hall manager I found out that lots of their clubs are having vegas-esque makeovers and they even put on cabaret during the festive period. I am SO coming back for that!

Having only ever played prize bingo at holiday parks in the past, I soon realised that I was a little slow at bingo – the numbers were being called at a faster-than-Cassie’s-internal-processor speed! But I soon got used to the pace (with a lot of concentration at first) and luckily the numbers came up on the screen so I could easily check to see if I’d missed one. I made this mistake while ordering my drink and missed a couple of numbers (apparently it’s hard to talk and dab at the same time!) but I checked my numbers during a break while a line claim was in progress, and thankfully caught up – not that I won anyway haha!

As we’d booked a party night out, our table was decorated with balloons, streamers and party hats, and the girls loved the cheeky bottle of bubbly that Gala had prepared for us! We actually felt like we were on a hen party and it would be great fun for that kind of event, or for a birthday or anniversary. We had a good giggle between bingo rounds (and stayed respectfully quiet while the games were in play) and when the interval came round, our tummies were rumbling! Who knew that bingo halls served food?? We enjoyed a naughty burger, popcorn-prawns and chips, yum! By the way, I must say that I was very impressed with the prices. I’m still a student-at-heart and hate spending a lot on a night, but Gala bingo have been reducing their prices and we got lots of discount vouchers for joining.

At times, we lost track of which game was being played (there’s a surprising number of different types of bingo!) with mutterings of ‘is it this one?’, but thankfully there were lots of lovely members of staff around the hall ready to help us newbies keep on track. We were all a little surprised at how much we were enjoying ourselves and stayed right to the very end, playing the national link-up game and even having a sneaky go on the slot-machines where a couple of us won a little prize yay! So we all headed home happy with a warm cider-glow after promising (or threatening!) we’d definitely be back for more bingo soon!

Finally, it’s the last day of January and the month of grey weather and near-poverty after christmas has come to an end – well done everyone, we got through it! I think that deserves a special treat for us all :)

I’ve been trying to think of a thrifty way to entertain my girlfriends this month and my plan to lift everyone’s spirits without breaking the bank is to have a cute afternoon-tea party.

I’ve cut up sandwiches into triangles and baked a batch of butterfly buns (here’s my recipe but you can also get a sponge packet-mix from supermarkets for under 40p and a pot of own-brand jam for 30p). Add a packet of biscuits and if you’re feeling flush, get some mature cheddar and bake some cheese scones. Now get the kettle on!

As you probably already know, I love my tea and I ordered a sample of ‘proper’ leaf tea from LoveTeaCo – any excuse to whip out the teapot! My sample of Belseri Assam Malt arrived quickly and I brewed up this gourmet tea for 3 minutes before pouring a cup of this lovely malty brew, which went deliciously well with my afternoon tea treats!

I’d certainly suggest an afternoon tea if you want to do something with your friends but are strapped for cash, everyone can bring something – fondant fancies or pot of home-made jam maybe – and spend an afternoon giggling over a cup of tasty real tea – great fun! :D